Comparison of security protocols in mobile wireless environments: tradeoffs between level of security obtained and battery life

Abstract

As the popularity of wireless networks increases, so does the need to protect them. In recent years, many researchers have studied the limitations of the security mechanisms that protect wireless networks, as well as the effects of network traffic on the battery life. However, there has been less research on the effect of adding security mechanisms to mobile devices and their impact on energy usage. This is a particularly important area when one considers classes of attacks where an attacker can drain a device's battery by simply having it repeatedly execute energy intensive programs. In this manuscript, we examine a method for analyzing trade-offs between energy and security proposed by Colo/spl acute/n Osorio et al. This research describes a method to identify the most appropriate security profile for a given application, given battery constraints. We apply this methodology to the analysis of tradeoffs between energy utilization and security of current and proposed wireless protocols.